Stem-winding watch



(No Model.)

A. E. HOTOHKISS.

STEM WINDING WATCH.

No. 325,247. Patented Sept. 1, 1885.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

' ARTHUR E. HOTCHKISS, OF CHESHIRE, CONNECTICUT.

STEM-WINDING WATCH.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 325,247, dated September 1, 1885.

Application filed August 20, 1884. (X0 model.)

To all whmn it may concern:

Be it known that I, ARTHUR E. HOTCIL KIss, of Cheshire, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Watches; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, whereby a person skilled in the art can make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

Like letters in the figures indicate the same parts.

Figure 1 is a plan view of part of my improved device, showing the rear plate and the stem connected with the winding mechanism. The rest of the train is not shown. Fig. 2 is a view of the side on theright of Fig. 1, showing also the face-plate and the handsetting mechanism. Fig. 3 is a plan view of the back of the front plate, showing the stem engaged with the hand-setting mechanism. Fig. 4 is a view of the side on the right in Fig. 8, showing also the case in section.

My invention relates, particularly, to the class of stem-winding watches; and it consists in a rotary and sliding stem bearing a gearwheel and so arranged and operating in relation to the plates and to the spring-barrel and center arbor and their connected gear-wheels and pinions that the watch may be wound or set directly from the stem.

The object of my improvements is to provide a watch of this special class that is simpler and cheaper in construction, more durable, and more readily repaired than any heretofore made, the nearest, perhaps, to my device herein described being one having directly connected with the stem parts larger in number and more complex in arrangement than mine, as this prior device involves the use of a positive clutch or click with other features not present in mine.

In the accompanying drawings, the letter (0 denotes the rear plate, and b the face-plate, that are connected to each other in the ordinary way and support between them a watchtrain, a part only of which is shown in the drawings. The bearings d d, fast to the rear plate, support the stem 0, which has a rotary and also a sliding movement in these bearings. The stem 0 is connected to the plates wholly by these bearings, and it bears between them a cog-wheel, e, pinned against a shoulder near its inner end. On its outer end is fast the usual crown-piece,c, with milled sides, and between the outer bearing, (1, and the crown-piece a rotary sleeve, f, with connected ringf, is held on the stem, and the latter is thrust outward by the spiral spring 9, seated in a chamber in the inner face of the sleeve. The outward thrust of this spring, one end of which rests against bearing d, holds the wheel e in mesh with the cog-wheel h that is pivoted to the back plate directly opposite the axis of the stem and in a plane parallel to the plate. This wheel 71. is the outer one of what may be called the winding-train h, the larger one of this connected train being fast to the spring-arbor, and arranged just below the barrel 2'. The wheel 6 meshes with the wheel h on the inner side of the latter; and in this normal position of the stem the watch may be wound up by turning the stem in the usual manner; but if the stem be pushed inward the wheel 6 slides with the stem and out of mesh with wheel h. This sliding play of the stem is suflicient to place the wheel 0 into mesh with a cog-wheel, k, that is pivoted on the back of the face-plate and meshes into a pinion on the center arbor. (See Figs. 3 and 4.),

By turning the stem when it is held at the inner limit of its longitudinal play the hands may be set in any desired position.

The winding-train is held against reverse motion by the spring-depressed click h that is of ordinary construction. WVhen the plates are connected, a projecting part of the bearing dis preferably so placed as to pass through the opposite plate, back of which a pin is inserted to more securely support the parts in place.

The watch case is made in two parts, dividing on a plane about centrally and depthwise of the watch, with the inturned edges of one part, Z, overlapping and embracing closely the plain rim of the other part, Z, as shown in Fig. 4, thus forming a very tight dust-proof joint. The rims of these parts are each cut away on one side to allow the ring-bearing stem to project through them 5 and one of them is cut away centrally in such manner as to leave a shouldered flange that holds the crystal, on.

I claim as my improvement 1. In combination, a watch or clock plate, 0, having bearings (Z d, that support a rotary and sliding stem, 0, and a winding-train, 7i, wheels arranged parallel to the plate, a plate, 1), bearing the cog-wheel 7.: in mesh with the c0g-wheel 011 the hand-bearing arbor, and the cog-wheel 0, fast on the stem 0 and mesh ing at the opposite limit of its play with the cog-wheels h and 7.:, respectively, all substantially as described.

2. In a watch or clock, in combination, the plate-supported bearings dd, a sliding and I 5 rotary stem, 0, pressed outward by a spring, a cog-wheel, 0, fast to the stem and meshing edgewise of its teeth at the opposite limits of the sliding play of the stem directly with the cog-Wheels h and L of the winding and handsetting trains, respectively, all substantially as described.

ARTHUR E. HOTCHKISS.

\Vitnesses:

FRANK L. BRYANT, EDWARD A. CORNWALL. 

